We have now reached the 10th day of protests that, beginning at Taksim Gezi Park, saw the demand for “freedom” from citizens from every corner of our country.
Our concerns have been heightened by the events that happened in Ankara and Rize on the same day that the demands of millions of our citizens that echo in the streets were delivered to the country’s highest authority, the Prime Ministry and to Mr. Bülent Arınç.
One of the most important of the clear demands was “everyone who prevented the use of the most basic democratic rights of the people; who gave orders for violent repression, enforced or implemented these orders and who are responsible for the thousands of injured people and two deaths are dismissed from their posts, and the use of tear gas bombs and other similar materials is prohibited.”
However, last night the continued interventions with tear gas and pressurised water in Ankara increased all of our concerns and were also a sign that the issue had not been fully understood.
We would like to highlight once again that our main and most urgent demand is that such interventions cease immediately and that those responsible are removed from office.
We would also like to reiterate that the events in Rize and the provocative actions aimed at increasing social tensions that continued until 11pm are unacceptable and have greatly increased the responsibility of the country’s leaders.
Across the country, particularly in Istanbul-Taksim, all the citizens are demonstrating their democratic reaction to the police violence pursued by the government as a response to the social sensitivity to the attempts to demolish Taksim Gezi Park at 22.00 on 27th May 2013.
First, we are share the grief of the families of Abdullah Comert and Mehmet Ayvalitas who lost their lives and we want to convey best wishes for a speedy recovery to our thousands of injured citizens.
Unfortunately, The government continues to follow policies of violence, oppression and prohibitionist rule despite the fact that the protesters are peacefully and democratically voicing their demands, which are democracy and the most basic human rights. We want everybody to know that we are making intensive effort to reach the social climate where not a single citizen’s nose bleeds, the tensions disappear and the democratic demands can be expressed.
Therefore, as Taksim Solidarity, we are waiting for the government to take concrete steps to immediately meet our demands listed below.
Gezi Park should remain a park.
WE DEMAND that
• Taksim Gezi Park will not be re-developed under the name of Artillery Barracks or any other project,
• an official statement on the cancellation of the current project is made,
• the attempts to demolish Ataturk Cultural Centre stop,
• everybody responsible for the thousands of injured people and two deaths, starting with the Governors and the Police Chiefs of Istanbul, Ankara and Hatay and everyone who prevented the use of the most basic democratic rights of the people; who gave orders for violent repression, enforced or implemented these orders are dismissed from their posts,
• the use of tear gas bombs and other similar materials is prohibited,
• detained citizens who attended the resistance across the country are immediately released and an official statement which declares that there will not be any investigation about them,
• starting with Taksim and Kizilay squares, all the meeting and demonstration bans effecting all of our squares and public areas and all the de facto blockings are abolished and stopped,
• barriers to freedom of expression are removed.
Furthermore, we believe that the content, the spirit, the expectations and the demands of the reactions which have risen in the squares, avenues, streets and all the public areas of our country since 27th May 2013 22.00 should be recognized by the authorities. Trying to explain what has happened with “marginality” means ignoring it. It is seen that the current understanding of power which has been symbolized with the Gezi Park demolition is interpreted by our citizens as “intervention in their life styles and scorning”, that they have shown a public reaction to this with men, women, the young and the old and that their response to power is “we exist, we are here and we have demands”.
We would like to inform those who are currently in government that the content of this rising reaction consists of
• our reaction to the pillaging of our ecological heritage with plans and practices like firstly the project for the 3rd bridge over Bosporus, the project for the 3rd airport in Istanbul, Kanal Istanbul project, AOC (demolition of Ataturk Forest Farm), HES (Hydroelectric Power Plants) and more recently the draft law on the Protection of Nature and Biodiversity,
• our opposition against the war policies in our country and our region, our demand for regional peace,
• the sensitivities of our alawite citizens,
• the rightful demands of the victims of urban transformation
• the rising voice against the conservative male politics establishing control over women’s bodies,
• the resistance against the oppression on the universities, courts and artists,
• the demands of all the labourers against their rights being deprived, particularly at Turkish Airlines,
• the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,
• the demand for the removal of all barriers between the citizens and their right to education and health service.
Across the country, particularly in Istanbul-Taksim, all the citizens are demonstrating their democratic reaction to the police violence pursued by the government as a response to the social sensitivity to the attempts to demolish Taksim Gezi Park at 22.00 on 27th May 2013. The government continues to follow policies of violence, oppression and prohibitionist rule despite the fact that the protesters are peacefully and democratically voicing their demands, which are democracy and the most basic human rights.
To communicate our demands and to take a positive step, we will have a meeting with Mr Bulent Arinc representing the government in the Prime Minister`s office on 5th June at 11.00.
To the attention of public with our sincere respect.
We united in the streets, we will achieve our demands in the streets! We won’t let anyone harm the Gezi Park, our labor, our life and nature!
Our resistance began a week ago in Taksim Gezi Park and has since spread over to the streets and squares in 40 cities across Turkey. It has unveiled the willpower of millions. The people of the Turkish Republic are showing their long due response to the fascist and oppressive Turkish government. Despite the unlawful and disproportional police interventions, we are determined to force the government to listen to our demand to live in a democratic and secular country.
In democracies, the law enforcers are responsible for ensuring the citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and assembly. Likewise, the media has a duty to ensure that people have access to unbiased and timely information. In Turkey, today, neither the enforcer nor the media fulfils their responsibilities towards their own citizens. We condemn the use of violence against those who were using their right to peaceful demonstration and the media in Turkey that refuses to provide true flow of information that this society demands and deserves.
Our resistance is no longer just about the trees and the environment. It is against all oppressive and anti-democratic conducts of the Turkish government lead by the Prime Minster Tayyip Erdogan; it is against the authoritarian ideology of “I have decided so and therefore it is”. Our resistance is the unified uprising of all seculars, anti-capitalist muslims, homosexuals, echologists and so on.
We will not bow down to the bans, suppression and unlawful violence of the Turkish police state. We will not allow the government to impose their political agenda, oppressive Islamism and puritanical prohibitions to reshape the Turkish way of living. We will not let them plunder and sell our cities, villages, forests and water supplies.
Our civil resistance will spread to all domains of public and business life, from labour unions to trade associations, artists groups and political parties. We will make the government understand that they cannot take any steps on behalf of the Turkish public, despite the Turkish public. Our on-going resistance has proven that the current governmental policy of ruling through fear and suppression is no longer an option.
The immediate demands of our civil resistance are:
1. Prompt, independent and impartial investigations should be carried out to ensure that all law enforcement officials responsible for excessive and abusive use are prosecuted.
2. Directly accountable for all the brutal acts of the police, the governors and chiefs of police of Istanbul and Ankara should resign with immediate effect.
3. The police should free all civil protestors who have been taken into custody during the past week.
4. The demonstrators’ rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression should be respected and all bans against public demonstrations across the country should be lifted.
5. The media should respect the citizens’ rights for access to timely and unbiased information and should cover the demonstrations as is expected in a democratic country.
Taksim Project brought us face to face once again with decision-making mechanisms that are unacceptable in a modern and democratic country. We were brought together to protect Taksim Square by the fact that the redevelopment project, which was presented to the public without taking any of the necessary scientific, technical or democratic steps, would lead to irreversible mistakes being made.
The Taksim Project was first announced by the Prime Minister before the elections. Following this the modification to the plan, presented to the public as a pedestrianisation project, was approved by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipal Council and the Istanbul 2nd District Regional Board for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. The modification to the project was announced with no regard for the universal values of town planning, without taking into account the science and techniques of transport planning and project design; furthermore it breached the decisions by preservation board and civil chambers. The project that was announced was in fact a “concretisation”, “dehumanisation” and “depersonalisation” project. With its tunnel entrances and retaining walls that threaten the safety of vehicles and pedestrians, and its corridor-style pavements that obstruct pedestrian access to the square, this project is also an “underground” project that destroys the integrity , both visually and as a public living space of a historical area.
New constructions, illegally added to the modification of the plan in the name of the restoration of the Military Barracks, are being imposed on the public. Gezi Park, the only green space in the centre of the city, a space that is open to everyone and to which everyone has a right, and the place we would take refuge in the event of an earthquake, is being taken from us; attempts are being made to concretise and commercialise the trees and the areas that we use to walk, meet and rest areas. Yet again the aim is to obtain power and the prestige of money through deceiving the public.
Taksim as a whole is a protected piece of our cultural heritage and the city’s most important public space. We demand that an immediate halt is called on the project, before it becomes an imposed fait accompli. We want Taksim to be developed with a more holistic approach, taking into account its social, historical, communal, cultural and environmental value, and using honest, transparent, participatory and democratic methods that conform to universal models and rules.
Taksim Square was the first piece of urban planning of the Republic period, and perhaps the most important. Taksim is the square of labour and democracy, the place where we celebrate all of our public holidays and festivals, and where we express our joy, our reactions and our demands for our rights.
We are all here together to protect Taksim Square.